Birthdays!

I always get a little annoyed when people are due at any time and stop updating blogs or facebook. I get excited for them...and here I am, over a week without a post and sitting here at full-term in a pregnancy. Shame on me! I can't blame it on nothing going on worth posting about, quite the contrary.

Last week, Loran was gone most of the week in Kentucky. He got to tour the Amazon fulfillment center. All phones, pens, paper, etc where confiscated from them upon entering so there are no pictures to accompany what he saw, but it seems amazing - and gigantic. It's all automated, with only two full-time employees - one fixes robots, one gives tours. They also bring in part-time folks when they need extra robot fixing help. Meanwhile, back on the home front, I'd come down with a nice icky cold. I spent a good part of Tuesday on the couch while Ella showered me in toys and shredded tissues as she plucked them from the box. Then on Thursday, Ella came down with said cold as I was starting to feel better and Loran was on his way home Thursday night. Ella seemed to only be affected by the cold on Thursday, after a good night's sleep, she was happy again on Friday - whew!

When Loran was gone, I gave Ella a surprise - my newborn doll. I'd received it when my mom was pregnant with my sister. It's actually an anatomically correct male baby. Back then, we didn't know if I was getting a brother or sister and they wanted me to get used to the idea of a boy. I love this doll. It's one of the only dolls I've saved and I went through some of Ella's old baby clothes and picked a couple of newborn size clothes for it and packed a bag with some NB diapers, clothes and a bottle. Ella's a little weirded out by the doll, but has been mostly nice to it. She really likes to feed the dolls with the bottle.

But, she's also showing us that even though she's been bottle-free for over a year, old habits are hard to break. Perhaps when she takes a pull on a bottle filled with non-skim milk, she won't be so excited.

To make matters even more interesting, we were prepping for Loran's surprise birthday party on Friday. Ella was in charge of coloring the Elmo birthday card she'd picked out for Loran. As I was cleaning up, I noted that we were missing half of a red crayon. Not just a small crayon, one of those thick crayons made for stubby little hands. I didn't think much of it, assuming it had rolled under the couch. Then, my darling little daughter strolls by with Chewy hanging out her her mouth and Chewy just happens to have red ears. At first, I thought her mouth was bleeding. But this red stuff was pretty waxy. As was Ella's mouth. Greeeeat. I wasn't bothered that she ate a crayon, it's non-toxic. Kids do that kind of stuff. I was more bothered that I had to send her overnight to Nana and Papa's house the next day while waiting for this red crayon to make its grand reappearance. All parties were warned prior to Ella's arrival that she was traveling with a foreign body.

Rocking the blueberries at breakfast.

Friday, I surprised Loran with an overnight trip to Mystic Lake Casino where we were joined by some friends. Unfortunately, as seems to happen with Loran's big birthdays, there was bad weather. Some of our party goers didn't make the festivities due to ice and snow. (Loran's 25th birthday featured a blizzard that dropped 30 inches of snow in a matter of hours). Despite the crazy wait for the buffet and the second-hand smoke, we all had a great time. And, thanks to some promotional coupons, the Gutts left having made some money, as did some of our party-goers! We were rocking the video poker. It was fun to just pick Loran up from work and start driving. He was so confused as to where we were going. He didn't even know we'd be going overnight. He was convinced I was checking him into an in-patient quesedilla addiction program at the Mayo Clinic. Maybe next year!

I didn't sleep well at the hotel, despite having no one to worry about, no schedule to follow and ample pillows to prop myself up with - I was totally convinced that I would go into labor and hour away from the hospital while there was an ice storm.

Obviously, I didn't.

Happy 30th Daddy! We treated Loran to a homemade dinner of fried chicken and all of the fixings and Ella gave him the game Hi Ho Cherry-Oh. She's very excited about this.

We've since enjoyed several dinners in Loran's honor and are now back at the daily grind of trying to keep up with Ella and organizing for Lily's arrival.

I've hit baby limbo. I'm now full term. Things are getting more uncomfortable with more cramping, pressure and stabbing feelings. I feel limited as to what I can plan ahead of time. I have my next appointment on Monday when I'll be 38 weeks and 2 days. With Ella, I went into labor at 38.5. I'm sure I'll be given the option of having my membranes stripped. I'm uncertain if I want to do that or see if I make it to 39 weeks. I'm not in a super rush to have her, or impatient, but not knowing what the imminent future brings is very frustrating. And, if my body isn't ready, stripping the membranes won't do anything - so it's not like I'm pushing things against their will. Oh, the decisions! But, it's also a full moon on Sunday with snow in the forecast. Perhaps that will be the ultimate deciding factor.

I am nearly done with Lily's quilt though, and decided to reorganize the coupons and owner's manuals are next. Not sure if that will be my weird nesting or just my general weirdness.

Fake smiles all around!